1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a media processing device that applies a data writing process to the recording surface of media and applies a printing process to the printing surface of media based on commands from a host computer.
2. Description of Related Art
Media processing devices that have a media storage unit for storing media such as CDs and DVDs, a media drive for writing data to media and reading data from media, a label printer for printing a label containing such information as the title of the written data or the date the disc was recorded on the label side of the media to which data was written, a media transportation mechanism for conveying the media, and a control unit for controlling driving other parts of the media processing device are known from the literature. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2006-331534.
The media transportation mechanism, media drive, and printer of the media processing device described in JP-A-2006-331534 receive media publishing jobs from an application running on a host computer that is communicably connected with the media processing device, and respective drivers control the media drive, printer, and media transportation mechanism to apply specific processes to the media.
FIG. 5 describes the steps of a media production process whereby the media processing device described in JP-A-2006-331534 processes media based on media publishing jobs from an application installed on the host computer.
When the host computer completes inputting information (such as inputting data to be written on the recording surface of the media, and inputting data to be printed on the label side of the media) to the application and asserts a media publishing command, a media production job is created. When a transportation command to the media transportation mechanism is sent to the media processing device based on the media production job (step S101), the media transportation mechanism conveys media from the media storage unit to the media drive accordingly (step S102). When media transportation is completed, an appropriate report is sent to the host computer. The media drive that received the media then writes data (step S104) according to the received write command (step S103).
When the media transportation mechanism then receives a transportation command from the host computer for conveying the media from the media drive to the printer (step S105), the media transportation mechanism conveys the media from the media drive to the printer (step S106), and reports to the host computer when media transportation is completed. When the printer that received the media then receives a print command from the host computer (step S107), the printer determines if cleaning the print head before starting the printing process is required based on the status of the previous print head cleaning operation.
If the printer that received the print command determines that cleaning the print head is required, the printer selects the head cleaning operation to be applied based on preset head cleaning conditions, and cleans the print head (step S108). The printer then prints on the media after cleaning ends (step S109).
When the media transportation mechanism receives a transportation command from the host computer to move the media from the printer to the media storage unit after printing is completed (step S110), the media transportation mechanism conveys the media from the printer to the media storage unit as directed by the command (step S111), and the media production process ends.
The printer disposed in the media processing device described in JP-A-2006-331534 is an inkjet printer that discharges ink supplied from ink cartridges from the nozzles of the print head to print on the label side of the media. In order to prevent a drop in print quality due to dirty or clogged nozzles, inkjet printers require head cleaning based on how dirty or clogged the print head is at a regular or irregular interval.
The head cleaning operations that can be used typically include a wiping operation that wipes the nozzle surface of the print head, and vacuum operations that suck a predetermined amount of ink from the nozzles of the print head and include a main vacuuming operation, a low volume vacuuming operation, a dummy vacuuming operation, and a resting operation. In step S108 described above, one or a combination of these print head cleaning operations are applied according to how dirty or clogged the print head is.
As shown in FIG. 5, when the printer conventionally receives a print command in step S107, the printer determines whether cleaning is necessary based on the previous cleaning status of the print head, and executes a cleaning process if it determines that cleaning is necessary. Because the printer cannot start the process of printing on the label side of the media until the print head cleaning process is completed, the start of printing is delayed and the throughput of the media production process drops.
When the print head can be sufficiently cleaned with a light cleaning operation such as wiping the nozzle surface of the print head, the delay to the start of printing is not particularly noticeable, and the drop in the throughput of the media production process is not particularly a problem.
However, when the print head is particularly dirty and the cleaning process is relatively long as a result of combining plural cleaning operations, cleaning takes a long time and the drop in the throughput of the media production process cannot be ignored. A powerful cleaning operation with a relatively long processing time is required particularly when the print head has not been used for a long time, such as when the power to the media processing device is turned from off to on. The time required to start printing, that is, the delay to first print, is therefore extreme.